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In many forest areas in the United States, Canada and Australia, there are fire lookout towers manned by persons called the "fire lookout" whose duty is to lookout for signs of wildfires in the wilderness, and report them so they can be quickly suppressed. A fire lookout tower is usually a small cabin located on the summit of a mountain or other high vantage point like a tall tree or a tower. In the early days, trees were often used as lookouts. There were plenty of tall trees around and all you had to do was attach a ladder to an existing tree. Sometimes, instead of a ladder metal rungs were pegged into the tree trunks to form a spiraling ladder up to a treehouse cabin high up in the canopy. The cabins were often equipped with telephones, fire finder tables, seats and guy wires. A tent or shelter at the bottom of the tree provided accommodation.

Dave Evans Bicentennial Tree

Photo credit: Jurriaan Persyn/Flickr (left) / Hannah/Flickr (right)

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